Clamp for slicers



April 10, 1934. Q R woon 1,954,032

CLAMP FOR SLICERS BY ATTORNEY Z NVENTOR I @ffy/wf April 10, 1934. G. R. wooD CLAMP FOR .SLICERS Filed Feb. 19, '19551 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .NGE

' lNvENToR l KM BY u ATTORNEY v www ACR

Patented Apr. 10, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT orificeN CLAMP FOR SLICERS Application February 19, 1931, Serial No. 516,979

4 Claims.

This case relates to slicing machines and particularly to the devices for feeding an article to the knife to be sliced.

In machines of the type wherein an article clamp is movable towards the plane of the knife to advance the meat across the edge of the knife, it is desirable to obtain as large a stroke of the clamp as possible. This avoids the necessity of frequently retracting the clamp to obtain a fresh grip on the article. Further, when the clamp is used as a pusher plate, it is necessary that the pusher plate be movable as close as possible to the cutting plane or plane of the knife edge, even to the extent of one-eighth of an inch, so that the greatest number of possible slices may be obtained from an end piece of meat or the like.

Further, the clamp should be capable of a large Vertical spread to clamp relatively tall pieces of meat or the like.

All these desiderata have not been obtained in known Slicers because some part of the frame of the slicer usually projects past the knife plane towards the clamp structure and interferes with the movement of the clamp towards the plane of the knife.

The object of the instant invention is to obviate the interference of the frame with the clamp so that the latter may be fed as closely as desired to the plane of the knife. j

More specically, the object is to obtain the largest possible stroke of a clamp towards the knife plane; toffeed a pusher plate as close as pos sible to the plane of the knife; and to vary the closeness to which the clamp may be fed in accordance with the vertical adjustment: of the clamp.

`Various other objects and advantages of my invention will be obvious from the following particular description of one form of mechanism embodying the invention or from an inspection of the accompanying drawings; and the invention also constitutes certain new and novel features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view of the feeding side of the Slicer to which the invention has been applied and Fig. 2 is a front end view of the machine with the novel clamp.

K In detail, the machine comprises a base 10 supporting guide rails 11 and 12 on which is slidably mounted an article holding carriage 13. The latter has a handle 14 for moving it to and from the disk knife 15. The latter may be rotated by any suitable means and in the type of machine illus- (Cl. 14S-217) trated is usually driven by a motor. The feed sideV y guarded by rear plates 18 and 19 and upper tubular guard 20. The gage plate structure in the type of machine illustrated is also covered by a casting 21 which projects past the plane of the gage plate towards the clamp as seen in Fig. 2.

Mounted on carriage 13 is a clamp frame 22 which is movable towards the gage plate and plane of the knife for feeding the article across the knife edge. Means are provided for guiding the clamp frame slidably towards the plane of the gage plate and knife disk. These guiding means comprise a rail 23 fixed to the rear of the carriage 13 and cooperating guide devices 24 carried by the clampframe on opposite edges of the rail. The edges of the rail are V-shaped to facilitate seating the guide devices therein. The clamp frame is bent over to extend above the relatively horizontal side 25 of the carriage. At its upper end, the frame is provided with an integral post 26 which is inclined upwardly transversely to and away from the plane of the gage plate and knife disk as may be seen in Fig. 2, the angle of inclination being in the instant case about 5 from the plane of the gage plate. The post slidably re- -ceives a bar 27 the lower end of which has rotatively mounted therein a rod 28.

The inner end of the rod 2,8 has xed thereto a clamp 29 having a vertical face 30 to act as a pusher plate for end pieces of meat or the like, a straight horizontal face 31 to grip regular pieces of material, and a curved gripping face 3l for irregular pieces. The faces 31 and 31 are adapted to coact with a spiked plate 32 carried by the clamp frame 22 to grip an article between them. The vertical face 30 coacts with the gage plate and guard plate 16 to clamp an end piece.

The stroke of the clamp is limited by the possibility of Contact thereof with projecting portions of the slicer such as gage cover 21, guard piece 20, and ears 33 provided on guard plate 16 to secure it to the frame. At the same time, it is necessary that the pusher face 30 be capable of moving very close to the cutting plane. If a large piece of meat is held between clamp face 31 and plate 32, the clamp will be in raised position and its movement towards the cutting plane will have to stop short of said projecting portions of the slicer, otherwise, the clamp will more or less roughly strike these portions depending on the force exerted to feed the clamp, thereby damaging the faces of the clamp and the projecting portions. Thus, if the clamp be in raised position and fed too far forward it may for example contact the first ear 33 and either twist the clamp or the ear or both. As the face 30of the clamp must be parallel to the face of the gage plate and the cutting plane, the twisting of the clamp plate would be highly undesirable. Further, the scraping oif of the finish of the projecting portions would also be undesirable. It is seen therefore that the feed of the clamp when in raised posi-r tions is limited by aforementioned projecting portions If the clamp were constrained to vertical movement, that is if the clamp bar 27 were not movable in an inclined path, as indicated in Fig. 2, the clamp would be the same distance from the cutting plane whether in raised, lowered, or intermediate positions. Thus, the limit of movement imposed on the clamp when in raised position would incidentally` limit the sim.- ilar movement of the clamp in all other vertical positions.

Accordingly,` the clamp when functioning as a pusher plate would bev limited in its movement towards the cutting plane by the limiting position of the clamp when serving as a hold-down gripper. Thus the minimum thickness of the end piece which could be gripped by the pusher face of the clamp would be as much as a half inch. As it is desirable to grip end pieces as thin as oneeighth of an inch, the clamp devices formerly in use were defective` To remedy this defect, clamps have been provided only with pusher faces and their upward stroke limited.

However, by inclining the post 26 and clamp bar 27, as indicated in Fig. 2, the advantages of a simple clamp having. both pusher and hold-down faces are retained while the clamp is enabled to move closer to the cutting plane as it is lowered. Here, while the clamp movement towards the cutting plane is limited by the stroke necessary to bring it when in raised position just close to but out of contactV with the aforementioned projecting portions of the frame, at the same time, the lowering of the clamp from this limited position due to the' inclined movement thereof automatically brings the pusher facer 30 closer to the cutting plane. Accordingly, the pusher face may grip end pieces as thin as one-eighth of an inch although at no time can the clamp interferev in any position with projection portions of the slicer.

To adjust the limit of movement of the clamp frame 22 towards the cutting plane, a screw 35 is provided on the carriage 13 adjacent the inner end of rail 23 to abut the inner side of the carriage frame.

The rod 28, carrying the clamp plates 30, 31, and 31', is swiveled in the bar 27 so that different angularly shaped articles may be firmly gripped by turning the rod in its bearing. To frictionally retain the rod in adjusted angular position, the rear end thereof carries a friction spring washer 36 which engages a plain washer 37 contacting the adjacent side of bar 27.

The end of the rod 28 has a screw 38 which may be adjusted to vary the frictional contact between spring washer 36, plain washer 37 and bar 27.

Either face 31 or 31 may be selected for cooperation with the plate 32 by rotating the clamp 29 approximately 180 in its bearing in the frame 27.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without 'departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims:

l. In a slicing machine, a gage plate, a substantially parallel disk knife, a carriage for traversing the plate and knife, a device mounted on the carriage for movement towards the gage plate, an article engaging member, and means provided on said device for guiding. said member for movement relative to the device in an inclined path towards the gage plate.

2. In a slicing machine, a gage plate, a substantially parallel disk knife, a carriage for traversing the knife and plate, a device mounted on the carriage for movement towards the gage plate, an article engaging member, a post carrying. said member, and effectively inclined guiding means on the device for the post to constrain the latter for movement relative to the device in an effectively inclined path towards the gage plate.

3. In a slicing machine, a movable knife, a carriage for holding an article, the carriage and knife being relatively movable past each other to permit the knife to cut a slice from. the article, a device mounted on the carriage for movement towardsv the cutting plane, said device having guide means inclined towards thev cutting plane with the' end of the guide means closer to the cutting plane being also closer to theI article supporting surface of the carriage, a clamp forengaging the article on the carriage, and means connected to the clamp for slidably coacting` with the inclined guide means to be guided by the latter for movement. relative to the device in an inclined path towards the cutting plane.

4. In a slicing machine, a gage plate, a knife at the side of the plate, a carriage' for traversing the knife and plate, a device mounted on the carriage for movement towards the gage plate and the cutting plane, a pusher plate for moving an articler onl the carriage towards the gage plate, said device having guide means inclined towards the gage plate, the end of the inclined guide means closer to the gage plate being also closer to the article supporting surface of the carriage, and means connected to the pusher plate and slidably engaged with said guide means to bel guided for movement relative to the device in an inclined path towards the gage plate.

GEORGE R. WOOD. 

